1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lithographic apparatus and a device manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term xe2x80x9cpatterning devicexe2x80x9d as here employed should be broadly interpreted as referring to device that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of the substrate. The term xe2x80x9clight valvexe2x80x9d can also be used in this context. Generally, the pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device (see below). An example of such a patterning device is a mask. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the radiation beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. In the case of a mask, the support structure will generally be a mask table, which ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming radiation beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired.
Another example of a patterning device is a programmable mirror array. One example of such an array is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that, for example, addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind. In this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable surface. An alternative embodiment of a programmable mirror array employs a matrix arrangement of tiny mirrors, each of which can be individually tilted about an axis by applying a suitable localized electric field, or by employing piezoelectric actuators. Once again, the mirrors are matrix-addressable, such that addressed mirrors will reflect an incoming radiation beam in a different direction to unaddressed mirrors. In this manner, the reflected beam is patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable mirrors. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronics. In both of the situations described hereabove, the patterning device can comprise one or more programmable mirror arrays. More information on mirror arrays as here referred to can be seen, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,891 and 5,523,193, and PCT publications WO 98/38597 and WO 98/33096. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the support structure may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
Another example of a patterning device is a programmable LCD array. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872. As above, the support structure in this case may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask and mask table. However, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning device as hereabove set forth.
Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC""s). In such a case, the patterning device may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at once. Such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus, commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the xe2x80x9cscanningxe2x80x9d direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. Since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally  less than 1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be seen, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792.
In a known manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. It is important to ensure that the overlay (juxtaposition) of the various stacked layers is as accurate as possible. For this purpose, a small reference mark is provided at one or more positions on the wafer, thus defining the origin of a coordinate system on the wafer. Using optical and electronic devices in combination with the substrate holder positioning device (referred to hereinafter as xe2x80x9calignment systemxe2x80x9d), this mark can then be relocated each time a new layer has to be juxtaposed on an existing layer, and can be used as an alignment reference. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book xe2x80x9cMicrochip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processingxe2x80x9d, Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the xe2x80x9clens.xe2x80x9d However, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a xe2x80x9clensxe2x80x9d. Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such xe2x80x9cmultiple stagexe2x80x9d devices the additional tables may be used in parallel or preparatory steps may be carried our on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Dual stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,969,441 and 6,262,796.
One of the most challenging requirements for micro-lithography for the production of integrated circuits, as well as liquid crystal display panels and other types of devices, is the positioning of the optical elements in the project system PL. For example, lenses used in conventional lithographic projection apparatus need to be positioned to an accuracy of less than 10 nm in six degrees of freedom (DOF). An EUV lithography apparatus must use mirrors in the projection system because no material suitable for forming a refractive optical element for EUV is known and must be kept in vacuum to avoid contamination and attenuation of the beam. At the wavelength used in an EUV system, positioning accuracy below 0.1 nm is required.
Presently, lenses and mirrors are positioned using a coarse positioning actuator with micrometer accuracies but travelling over the entire working range, onto which is cascaded a fine positioning actuator. The later is responsible for correcting for the residual error of the coarse positioning module to the last few nanometers, or fractions thereof as the case may be, but only needs to accommodate a very limited range of travel. Commonly used actuators for such nano-positioning include piezoelectric actuators or voice-coil type electro magnetic actuators. While positioning in the fine module is usually effected in all six degrees of freedom, large-range motions are rarely required for more than two degrees of freedom, thus simplifying the design of the coarse module considerably.
The micrometer accuracy required for the coarse positioning can readily be achieved using well known position sensors, such as interferometers. These can be single-axis devices each measuring in one degree of freedom. However, these devices are expensive, bulky, are not capable of repeatable measurements, and only capable of measuring changes in displacement rather than absolute position.
Position measurement of the optical element at the fine positioning actuator, on the other hand, has to be performed in all six degrees of freedom to 10 nm. With present requirements capacitive sensors are used.
As ever finer resolution is required, the wavelength of the radiation of the lithographic projection has been reduced (from 157 nm) to the EUV range with a wavelength of about 5 to 20 nm. Thus, the required positional accuracy has become yet more refined. It has been found that the necessary accuracy of position measurement is not achievable using capacitive sensors because it is not possible to discriminate between rotation and displacement of capacitive sensors. Furthermore, capacitive sensors are not temperature stable over the entire working range.
Thus, in an EUV lithographic projection apparatus there is a requirement for a displacement measuring system with a higher resolution than the previously used capacitive sensors, which is both compact and can be used to measure the position of the optical elements in all six degrees of freedom. The sensors will also need to be insensitive to temperature fluctuations.
It is an aspect of the present invention to provide an improved displacement measuring system for use in a lithographic projection apparatus in which the problems described above are solved or ameliorated.
This and other aspects are achieved according to the present invention in a lithographic apparatus including a radiation system constructed and arranged to supply a beam of radiation; a support structure constructed and arranged to support a patterning device, the patterning device constructed and arranged to pattern the beam according to a desired pattern; a substrate table constructed and arranged to hold a substrate; a projection system, comprising at least one optical element, constructed and arranged to project the patterned beam onto a target portion of the substrate; and a displacement measuring system constructed and arranged to measure the position of the at least one optical element, wherein the displacement measurement system comprises a first diffraction grating mounted on the at least one optical element and an associated second diffraction grating mounted on a reference frame, and one of the first and second diffraction gratings is arranged to receive diffracted light from the other diffraction grating.
In this way the position of the optical element to which the first diffraction grating is mounted may be reliably measured in one degree of freedom using the interferential measurement principle which can yield an accuracy of up to 0.1 nm. When the first diffraction grating moves relative to the second diffraction grating, phase differences in the light waves are generated by the diffraction grating arranged to receive diffracted light from the other diffraction grating. These generated phase differences are proportional to the displacement of one diffraction grating relative to the other and their measurement can thereby be used to accurately measure the position of the optical element with the interferential measurement principle using single field scanning.
The displacement measuring system of the present invention works on the principles described by SPIES, A. in xe2x80x9cLinear and Angular Encoders for the High-Resolution Rangexe2x80x9d, Progress in Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology, Braunschweig, 1997, incorporated herein by reference. Similar encoders are also available commercially, e.g. interferential linear encoder LIP 382 from Dr Johannes Heidenhain GmbH, Traunreut, Germany.
Apart from the good accuracy of the displacement measuring system of the present invention, the system can be made compact and easily made vacuum compliant and temperature stable by careful choice of materials for the various components.
In an embodiment of the present invention, each diffraction grating has an associated grating pattern with reference marks for defining a reference position of the moveable object. In this way, the absolute position of the moveable object can be measured.
The displacement measurement system further comprises a light source constructed and arranged to generate a source of light, the displacement measuring system being arranged such that the source of light is diffracted by one of the first and second diffraction gratings thereby to generate a first diffracted light signal, wherein the first diffracted light signal is diffracted by the other of the first and second diffraction gratings thereby to generate a second diffracted light signal, wherein the second diffracted light signal is diffracted by the one of the first and second diffraction gratings thereby to generate a third diffracted light signal. One of the first and second diffraction gratings is a transparent diffraction grating and the other of the first and second diffraction gratings is a reflective diffraction grating. In this way, the displacement measurement device can be kept small and the light source and any optical sensors can be positioned close to one another adjacent the one of the first and second diffraction gratings.
The displacement measurement system may include at least two first diffraction gratings and at least two second diffraction gratings, respective pairs of first and second diffraction gratings being mounted substantially orthogonally. In this way, the position of the optical element in two degrees of freedom may be measured. It will be apparent that the position of the optical element may be measured in all six degrees of freedom by providing a pair of first and second diffraction gratings for each degree of freedom.
According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a device manufacturing method including providing a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material; projecting a patterned beam of radiation, using at least one optical clement, onto a target portion of the layer of radiation-sensitive material; and measuring the position of the at least one optical element by: providing a first diffraction grating mounted on the at least one optical element and a second diffraction grating mounted on a reference frame; and diffracting light diffracted by one of the first and second diffraction gratings with the other of the first and second diffraction gratings.
Although specific reference may be made in this text to the use of the apparatus according to the invention in the manufacture of ICs, it should be explicitly understood that such an apparatus has many other possible applications. For example, it may be employed in the manufacture of integrated optical systems, guidance and detection patterns for magnetic domain memories, liquid-crystal display panels, thin-film magnetic heads, etc. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that, in the context of such alternative applications, any use of the terms xe2x80x9creticlexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cwaferxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdiexe2x80x9d in this text should be considered as being replaced by the more general terms xe2x80x9cmaskxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9csubstratexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctarget portionxe2x80x9d, respectively.
In the present document, the terms xe2x80x9cradiationxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cbeamxe2x80x9d are used to encompass all types of electromagnetic radiation, including ultraviolet radiation (e.g. with a wavelength of 365, 248, 193, 157 or 126 nm) and extreme ultra-violet (EUV) radiation (e.g. having a wavelength in the range 5-20 nm, especially around 13 nm), as well as particle beams, such as ion beams or electron beams.